WTO summit pushed out by locals fearing protests

Residents of Double Bay have succeeded in moving next month's World Trade Organisation meeting - and the swarm of anti-globalisation protesters it will attract - away from the suburb.

Now, with less than a month to go before 24 trade ministers from around the world arrive for the November 14 and 15 meeting, and with security concerns heightened by the terrorist attack in Bali, the Federal Government is casting around for a new venue.

The WTO gathering was to have been hosted at the Stamford Plaza. A spokeswoman for the Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, said it would "take a couple of weeks" to pick the new location.

Despite the heightened security concerns the venue will be made public.

"I don't think we will be rushing out there to publicise it but by the same token it's not a secret meeting," the spokeswoman said.

The Government has been reluctant to move the venue but Mr Vaile changed his mind after Peter King, federal MP for Wentworth, which includes Double Bay, wrote to the Government saying his constituents feared the anti-WTO protesters would be violent and that the area's narrow streets would make policing and maintaining security difficult.

"With radical protesters planning a major and potentially violent protest, it was just not sensible to use a venue with the profile and layout of Double Bay," Mr King said.

As early as August the NSW Government and police raised security concerns about locating the conference in Double Bay.